CRAWFORD, Texas – Peace activist Cindy Sheehan and four other protesters were arrested Thursday for blocking a road near President Bush's ranch, authorities said.

Sheehan and the others lay or sat in the road about 20 minutes and didn't heed requests to move, Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. R.T. King said.

“They weren't going unless they were arrested,” King told The Associated Press.

Sheehan told the Waco Tribune-Herald that she and others were conducting a “peace surge” to address concerns that Bush may increase U.S. troop numbers in Iraq. Protesters said they had expected to be arrested.

Sheehan and the others were arrested on a misdemeanor charge of obstructing a highway passageway, said a bond clerk at the McLennan County Jail in Waco. She said it was unclear if they would be arraigned Thursday evening. If not, she said, they would have to spend the night in jail.

Among those at the ranch were Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The protest briefly delayed state troopers who were to serve in escort motorcades for government officials meeting with Bush, King said.

None of the top advisors at the meeting were held up, Deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel said.

Earlier this month in New York, Sheehan was convicted of trespassing for leading a protest across the street from the United Nations.

A judge sentenced her to conditional discharge. Sheehan's attorney, Robert Gottlieb, said Thursday that meant she will not face any punishment as long as they lead a “law-abiding life” for the next year.

“There is nothing to say that what she was arrested for today means that she is not living a law-abiding life,” Gottlieb told the AP. “She may in fact be innocent.”

He said he didn't think Thursday's arrest would result in any problems in New York.

Sheehan, 49, of Vacaville, Calif., lost her 24-year-old son Casey in Iraq in April 2004. She has since drawn international attention after camping outside Bush's ranch to protest the war.